Covering the Afghanistan War

Abstract

This chapter examines the news framing of the Afghanistan War and two Global Times journalists’ experiences as embedded journalists with the US military. It finds that both People’s Daily and Global Times carry fewer news stories on the Afghanistan War than on the Libyan and Syrian crises. Both titles hold a neutral stance toward the two warring sides: the USA/NATO and Taliban, since both pose potential threats to China’s national security. Chinese embeds’ experiences demonstrate that embeds from a non-participant country can be critical and can reveal the hegemony and hidden agenda of the USA and NATO. They have a strong sense of their national identity and associate the other’s war with their home country.